Authorities requested to respect the rights of healthcare workers
15 June 2021
The civil rights organisation AfriForum, the Caring Healthcare Workers’ Coalition (CHC) and the trade union Solidarity today sent a letter to the acting Minister of Health about the treatment of doctors and healthcare workers in general relating to the COVID-19 vaccines.
The organisations requested 1) that the reporting of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events (AEs) be encouraged and made transparently and publicly available, 2) that the right and responsibility of medical doctors to make a recommendation on a medical treatment and to raise health concerns relating to a medical treatment (including COVID-19 vaccines) be protected, and 3) that the right of healthcare workers to make a free choice about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine be clearly communicated and protected.
This comes after the CHC received reports of doctors being intimidated when trying to report COVID-19 vaccine adverse events and being ridiculed and verbally attacked when raising legitimate health concerns relating to the vaccines. Reports from healthcare workers that they are forced to sign a refusal form if they choose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at this point in time and reports of healthcare workers being intimidated and threatened to coerce them into receiving the COVID-19 vaccines also prompted the organisations to take action.
The organisations also drew the attention of the minister to the SA COVID-19 and Vaccine Social Listening Report 4, published by the Department of Health on 7 June. In this report medical doctors are labelled “anti-vaxx” without the provision of any definition of this label and the facts upon which such a label is attached to a medical doctor.